“So much of what Kaiser Permanente isseeing in terms of how consumers evaluate thecompany now begins through digital chan-nels,” says Boswell, former director of digitalmarketing and social media strategy for Kaiser.“Through platforms like Yelp and Health-grades, for example, customers are makingdecisions and choosing providers. Because ofthis, those platforms are increasingly becom-According to a November 2014 surveyfrom practice management reviewer SoftwareAdvice, an increasing number of consumersare turning to online physician reviews tosearch for a physician, with the use of onlinereviews increasing by 68 percent during theprior 12 months. Software Advice reports thatthe top five sites used to read patient reviewsare Yelp (selected by 27 percent of respond-ents), Healthgrades ( 26 percent), RateMDs( 26 percent), Vitals ( 11 percent) and ZocDoc( 7 percent). According to the survey, patients’top motivations for writing reviews are help-ing other patients, posting positive experi-ences and posting negative experiences.

Providers like Kaiser Permanente are pay-ing attention to the growing number of con-sumers that are giving their two cents online,That’s where direct response and digitalmechanisms come into play. “There is a bigrealization in the healthcare industry that,

BY BRIDGET MCCREA

When Keith Boswell looks at the digital marketing projects that Perceptint managed in 2014, one of them stands out. As CEO of the Rockford, Mich.-based digital marketing consultancy, Boswell says the most interesting projecton his company’s roster was a reputation management project for noneother than Kaiser Permanente — a huge health maintenance organization(HMO) and his former employer. The project came about when the HMOrealized that consumer online evaluations have a definite impact on the de-cisions that other consumers make when selecting healthcare providers.